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A B O U T M E

I am australian artist, designer, illustrator, small business owner and mother to two beautiful boys who are my constant strength and inspiration.

The majority of my work is in artists quality coloured pencils, however I also have series of works in oils, acrylics and pen.

I have created this art journal to document my journey, whether it be art, design, promotion or business. I look forward to sharing my experiences, techniques and inspirations with others and hope that it can in turn help others on their journey, or maybe might just help to fill in a bit of free internet browsing time :)

Belinda Lindhardt

Monday, January 28, 2008

Well, i have been tagged :) I was tagged by TET The Extraordinary Touristhis blog is here. He has a post about deciding whether to actually go to the effort of saying you have been tagged and then comes the guilt of actually tagging 5 other bloggers to do the same thing go read it here.As you can see i decided to do it :) I have to admit i have been tagged before but it wasnt long after my blog began and i had no idea at what being tagged meant and was too busy / embarrased to find out anymore so i never did anything about it. I also am embarrassed to say that I dont really ever have much to hide and i am not sure i do weird things to post about but here you go anyway.

5 things about me that you probably didn't know about me.

1. Ok this is a heavy one ... but i have decided to share it as its a significant thing that happened in my life and changed me forever and it relates to my art. I have actually had 3 children. Prior to my eldest son being born i gave birth to baby girl who died at 19weeks into the pregnancy. As you can imagine this was a very difficult thing to go through and i still think about it often. I actually in some of my larger contemporary pieces paint what i refer to as "life" which is often a kind of ball of light and swirls and stuff which is directly influenced by this emotion and event. i often think of a ball of energy as life as it seems to be where life all starts :) . I did a painting when i was mourning this loss and it helped me tremendously (and still does today) to have something physical i could refer to which represented what i went through. To the casual observer the painting just looks like swirls and colours with a white area in it :) i plan to one day do a series of these types of paintings similar to this to hopefully help out other woman who have been and/or are going through a similar thing. anyway so thats one thing you probably didn't know so onto the lighter stuff :)

2. I used to drive a truck and work in my Dad's kitchen / joinery business.

Yes a truck with a tray, he used to send me out to go pickup deliveries half way across Sydney. I used to sand and edge the laminate edges on the panels for kitchen cabinets and help dad pullout old kitchens ready for him to install ... along with this i was also a receptionist, office admin etc. It was hard work but i did enjoy it. I actually enjoy this type of physical work now more seeing as i don't do it very often. I think if i put my mind to it i am good with wood and handyman type jobs.

3. I like Vegemite and cheese sandwiches and i LOVE even better Vegemite and salt and vinegar chips sandwiches, it has to be on fresh white sandwich bread which i try now not to eat (i am off bread) but occasionally its an indulgence for me. Actually i bought some chips this week just so i could have this one day this week.

4. I love to cook when i have time, actually i love to eat nice food more than cooking and often cook something so i can eat something nice. Many of my friends think i am a bit of a gourmet. Truth is its the way i was brought up, my parents are from Denmark we would regularly eat prawns, nice salads, deli hams and salamis and nice cheeses with rye bread and on Sundays dad would buy nice seafood which i would help prepare and cook a nice early dinner when he was home. When i got together with Dan his mum Theresa who is a fantastic cook introduced me to different types of foods and ingredients than what i was used to so these days i can cook many various types of food. I actually make a very mean Bearnaise sauce (the proper way) i also do a good Tiramasu, and pasta etc my Ribs are pretty good too. i do love thai food and indian all sorts really, I can do a bit of everything, I am not big on desserts and sweets, i can do them but i don't have a good oven at the moment and prefer to leave that to dan's mum :)

5. I am a homebody and i have a few select friends but thats about it. Ok, so yes i suppose i am introverted .. since the kids and my art side expanding this is changing and i am more comfortable meeting new people (i think it has to do with getting older as well) but generally i don't really do good in large crowds or groups particularly with people i dont know. I truthfully find the whole thing a bit stressful and "fake" and would much rather be at home doing other stuff. I don't really think well on my feet ( i like to absorb things) so i feel like i get stumped and don't have much to say... so just try to avoid those types of functions, but i am working on improving this in the future :)

So thats it on me .. now for the 5 people to tag. And don't worry i wont be offended if you don't do it back . (if you have been tagged before and written the post just link to the old post no point in re-inventing the wheel).

Nicole Caulfield

Nicole is an absolutely amazing coloured pencil artist,I have been an admirer of Nicole's work for quite a few years. She is the queen of CP still life and i so wish i could draw cups and jugs and glasses like her. http://nicolecaulfieldfineart.blogspot.com

Daniel Sanger

Ok i am cheating here Daniel was tagged by TET, but i wanna tag him too, he is getting ready for the Archibald so he likely has no time to take part but he is a fabulous artists and is going to go big places.

Rose is one of the members of the fine art friends group we have formed. Its a private group of supporting artists. Rose is a fabulous support and artist. She does alot of art research and learning. She is an amazing inspiration.

Kasie is another member the fine art friends group. We meet on ScribbleTalk the coloured pencil forum she is a fabulous mum and artist Kasie and i think have an affinity as we both experiencing very similar life journeys and art paths.

To finish, for my tagees, the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog. 2. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. 3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. 4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

What has happened to this painting ? I don't know.. really i don't but my gosh i had fun!

This painting is one i started about 3-4 years ago i really liked it actually it was based on a previous coloured pencil piece i did previously :) I never quite finished the piece and i wasn't happy with the bottom half of the painting so the other day after doing some really detailed work i decided to tackle it. Having used oils alot recently it was a little strange switching back to acrylics i didn't mind it particularly but i think maybe my style of painting is better suited to oils. However, i will give the acrylics another try on another fresh piece.

As i mentioned, i had just finished some detailed paint work and i felt like i need to work large and thick and let something out, and so the painting evolved to what you see above. My other half was bitterly disappointed when he saw it as he said it was fine to begin with and one of his favorites. :(I am a bit disappointed in it too i was hoping i would have made it a better piece but on the plus side it felt good just having "fun" with the paint and it doesnt matter its not a "glory" piece or has good composition or anything it just was a good process. You cant quite see it on the photo but it has lots of thick paint in the swirls the kind that look like they are hanging off the painting. I used some impasto in the paint and it was good fun :)

This week i have also been busy working on a new design for my graphics / web designbusiness. I have the skills sitting there i really need to utilize them and promote my services better to other business. Previously i had just taken the work that has come my way but now the boys are older, my expenses are increasing and i just don't have the luxury of sitting back anymore. Plus i enjoy it, in a different way to my art and i like being able to deliver something to the client in a direct way. So stay tunned for a new design site coming in the next few days. (i hope)

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

I really miss it when i don't do some type of drawing and while i wont show the whole drawing i will show you this part just to prove i did :)

I wanted to follow on from my post yesterday where i mentioned that sometimes as mums we need to cut ourselves a bit of slack. I think this is true in the business world, art world and all sorts of worlds :) I think often we tend to put so much pressure on ourselves to get things done we should allow ourselves to say :

"You know what i didn't do that .. but thats ok!!!"

Ever since the beginning of the year i have been in accomplish mode. setting my goals has made focus on where i want to go and i plan on regularly revisiting them. Life and unforeseen things can get in the way tho and i know all too well how easy it is for things we plan on doing to get pushing to the way side or simple procrastinating. Then comes the cycle of feeling like a failure because you haven't done all the things you need to and it all gets a bit overwhelming doesn't it ?

So, today i wanted to share with you something i have been doing which makes me feel good about myself, allows me to set tasks for the next week and keep focused.

Every Friday at the end of my week i have been making a list. I write on the top of the page:"What did i achieve for this week? Date"Then i list in brief points all the things i did this week that were "good/positive" or which i wanted to get done. They can be from the simplest household jobs to fun activities with the kids that i can point back to and say i did that eg. This week we had a really fun time at the play center. etc . The list also includes my art and business projects that have been done.As i mentioned above, not only does it make me feel good about achieving things but it allows me to asses what areas of my life i need to tend to and allocate jobs to make it onto next week's list. I dont have to detail them just store them in my head (tho i usually write them down or i forget). I find i am motivated to get things to put on the list for the end of the week, and i guess more than anything it means i am holding myself accountable for doing things and making sure they are completed.So there you have it, something that is working for me if your feeling a bit swamped it might work for you! :)

Monday, January 21, 2008

So i guess a few of you have been asking where is Belinda ? What IS she doing ? Where is the art HUH ? And who is that bumblebee transformer on her blog ???

hehehe Well i have been in the land of websites, updates, graphics, tax / account keeping, finances, selfpromotion, visiting families and a certain 4 year old boy's birthday (if any of that makes any sense at all). The pic is of my oldest who turned 4 yesterday, we didnt really have a party but just had a couple of family members over for lunch but ofcourse then there is the presents, the cake and the cleaning of the house and food preparation and wot not so this is where all of my time has gone. I also have been doing a bit of graphics work cause i really need to start bringing some money in. SIGH... and today i have finished my account keeping for the quarter which always takes up my time so now i have a bit of a clean slate to get cracking. Now i can attack my desk which has a pile of papers so high i cant seem to find anything and my artroom which has no room to start any new artwork in it!!! I have added some updates to my website, I have added a paypal and direct debit option for purchasing of some of my smaller artworks (still to add some more pieces on there so i will post that link soon once its ready to go).

So this is where i have been, i am well aware of the fact that i haven't been sketching and i feel bad about it as it was one of the things i was going to make myself do this year. But i realise i am not superwoman ... baby steps at a time once these bits and pieces are out of the way i will be back in the swing of things !!! Sometimes us mums need to cut ourselves a bit of slack. :)

Oh and before i forget, in case you were wondering, the bumblebee is maxy in his dressup he got for his birthday, what a big boy i now i have.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Four of my artworks have been selected to participate in the Peninsula Art Walk 2008.When i received the call i was pretty excited about it :) Various artworks are displayed in shopfronts around my local (Woy Woy NSW Peninsula) in order to try and promote a visual arts venue on the peninsula.

Details of the event can be found here and the event is running from 12th January - 12th February 2008.

I have been really busy updating various things on my website (i am going to have a sale of some of my smaller artworks) but the page is not quite ready yet, i am having issues with one of the form scripts. So stay tunned for something coming soon, and the artwork? , well i just need to get a few things out the way to clear my head so i can get to it!!! *Sigh*....did i say i wanted to do this ? It all seems like alot of work ;) Jokes i am loving it !

Here is my final scan of Maxy's Bubbles :) There is unfortunately a bit of banding on the scan but there is nothing i can do about that :( I just have to live with it :( Nonetheless i am relatively happy with how it turned out it looks better in RL i have to admit.

Sunday, January 06, 2008

There's no art for me atm. I am in the middle of writing all about myself for some promotional materials. So lots of thinking and planning and working out what i am going to tell the world about myself :) This is a bit hard as today is presenting me with a lovely head cold grrr means i dont make much sense to anyone, so bear with me while i get myself organised :)

We have also been away the past few days up at Scone, visiting the inlaws, its always so lovely there and we get taken care of so well but its nice to be back and get ourselves back into a routine. We also brought our dog "uhoh" back home with us he had been visiting the inlaws' dogs for a couple of weeks while our house was being sprayed and while we were down in Sydney. Its lovely to have him back but he is missing his friends, we might have to get him someone to snuggle with i feel so sorry for him. He just keeps looking at me with those droopy eyes.

Friday, January 04, 2008

Well, I am beginning the new year on the right foot i have gotten around to rewriting my artist statement. I am not sure its there yet, but its on the way. Anyone reading let me know if it doesn't read right!!! :)

Art for me is about capturing “something” that has inspired me. It can be a colour, emotion, object or person that pulls me to want to put a little piece of myself to it and deliver it to the viewer. I am inspired by light, nature and capturing the precious things in life that seem to slip by us ever so quickly.

I have two very distinct styles, my larger acrylic and oil paintings often feature contemporary and abstract themes. These are inspirec by light and colour and I like to use a contrast of smooth flowing areas complimented by thick textured elements. It is style which is evolving for me, and I am really enjoying the experimentation of it.

I also produce very detailed realism styled artworks using artist quality coloured pencils. I am drawn to stillife, animals, and people for this medium and love working with different types of supports such as papers, drafting films and various types of boards to achieve different effects. The techniques used to achieve works of this style are very time consuming but I love the detail and the process involved. I also dabble with pen and ink and watercolour works depending on the subject or mood.

My current theme of work is all about emotion, texture and light. I am enjoying a freer and an experimental phase which I know will evolve into further more distinct themes for the not too distant future.

Thursday, January 03, 2008

As i mentioned in a previous post i discovered that the quality of the drafting film i used wasnt up to scratch so as you can see it buckles a bit. I am getting a scan done and flattening the piece now so i will get a much better pic, but here it is for you all anyway.